"The stars have been whispering such wicked things to me, Spoike." The vampire known as Drusilla murmured. Spike had come back to her and the stars told her why. Such a naughty boy Spike would have been, if he hadn't come back to her.

"What are they saying, luv?" He lit up a cigarette and eyed his girl. "What dark secrets are you seeing?"

"We need to go on a trip, far, far from here."

"And where do the stars say we need to go?"

"To visit the wish demon, you would have gone by yourself one day and played someone else's games. But the stars have warned me and now we can play our own games."

"A wish demon, huh? And what is it we're going to wish for?"

"Power. And revenge."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh, ever so much."

Back in Sunnydale Buffy groaned as she finished ringing up another transaction, the shop had been busy all day and they hadn't managed much research. "Why isn't Xander ever here helping run the register?" She complained. "He never does anything to help run the store."

"He helped build the store." Tara answered as she thumbed through a book. "And he works six days a week."

"As what? Driving that ice cream truck? That's not much of a job."

"He's been working construction full time since November." Tara glanced at her. "Is this something else you've forgotten? He started full time by working on the Cultural Center at the college. He's nearly in a position to finally move out of his parents place and get away from them."

"Why would he want to get away from his parents?" Willow mumbled from the other side of the table where she was looking through another book.

"Please let that be something you've forgotten and not something you never noticed." Tara whispered, upset.

"Notice what, Tara?" Giles asked, setting more books on the table.

"You remember my birthday when my family visited?"

"Yes." Willow looked sympathetic. "They'd convinced you that you were going to turn into a demon and we made them leave, because we're your family and we love you."

"Xander's family is just as bad as mine, Willow." Tara said softly. "He's working so hard so he can build up enough to move into his own place and get away from them. Please you know that, you've known him for years, you had to have known it, if you don't it must somehow be part of the spell."

"He occasionally made tasteless jokes about his family, but I was unaware of any difficulties he might have had with them." Giles stammered. "Did he ever say anything to you girls?"

"I've never met his parents and I don't remember him really talking about them." Buffy answered. "It might be part of the spell, but how would his family have any connection to Xander's attempts to help me with Slaying? I don't see a connection, which - Giles, did we miss something really obvious?"

"I don't know. I really don't." He looked at Willow, who was bone white and shaking. "Willow?"

"It has to be part of the spell, he's been my friend since we were two, I couldn't have missed something like that!" The books on the table began to rattle, a response to the building power around Willow as her emotions overwhelmed her.

"Willow, stop! Get control of yourself!" Giles stood up and risking injury, grabbed her shoulders and shook her, to get her attention. Things rattled on the nearby shelves and Giles shook her again. "Willow! Let go of the power before you hurt someone!"

"I - I can't!" The redhead exclaimed. "I can't! Help me!" Giles slapped her and she fell back, holding her cheek and staring at him. It worked, as it distracted her and the power dissipated and things settled down.

"What was that?" Buffy exclaimed.

"Wild Magic." Giles answered. "Willow's emotions fed it and she had no control, which has happened before now that I think about it."

"What? No, it hasn't!" Willow exclaimed.

"When you tried to curse Oz and when you nearly got us all killed doing that damned will-be-done spell." He reminded her.

"But, there were circumstances -." Willow tried to protest. "Like this time!"

"That's no excuse, Willow. You'd only loose control so easily if you lack control to begin with and as Buffy reminded us last night, at least half of the spells you attempt go wrong, which is far more than it should be."

"I just need to practice more spells, that's all. I've never failed at anything, Giles and I'm not failing at Magic!"

"Everybody just calm down!" Buffy ordered. "Let's get back to finding a spell that can break the memory spell. After that we can figure out what to do about Xander, okay?"

Before anyone could respond the door of the Magic Box was smashed open and a demon in robes with glowing lines on his face swept in. "Slayer!" He hissed and shot Buffy with the glowing stick in his hand.

"Giles! That's the demon that shot Xander!"

"He can't save you, Slayer, he's dead by now!"

Buffy launched herself off the floor with a howl and slammed into the demon at full throttle and with none of her usual grace. She clamped her hands around his head and wrenched and a gush of glowing blood heralded it's death.

"Giles?" Buffy whimpered from the floor. "Why is there another me?"

Tara seemed the only one able to think rationally and she called out a containment spell and the second Buffy, her body splashed with the dead demon's blood was now howling as she slammed herself against the energy of the containment circle she found herself in.